Category: Healing Wells

Healing wells, mineral springs and spas are all found under this heading.

Holland’s Well, Smalley, Derbyshire

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Healing Well:  OS Grid Reference – SK 4077 4436

Also Known as:  

  1. Holly Well

Archaeology & History

Hollands Well on 1881 map

Once visible near the middle of the village, references to this local water supply seem pretty scant.  According to Kenneth Cameron (1950) it gained its name from a local man called Robert Holland.  This may be the case; but there is a curious entry found in a notice regarding the Land Enclosures of Smalley from November 6, 1784.  In it we read that the land here was at that time owned by one Samuel Kerry (well known in the village as he built The Rose and Crown pub in 1768) who was living “upon the Common” and had “part of a croft” here.  Therein was mentioned a water source named the ‘Holly Well’ instead of the Holland Well.  I can only assume that the two are the same, as the proximity of them are very close indeed.  The account told that,

“a disused well in the triangular croft at the back of the sixth milestone in the village marks the site of (Samuel Kerry’s) original home, and he is said to have dug the “Holly Well” close by for brewing purposes, which has long supplied the vicinity with good water.”

The name ‘Holly’ may infer that a holly tree grew by the side of the well, and that the title ‘Holland’ was a corruption later grafted onto the site.  Are there any local historians out there who know more…?

References:

  1. Cameron, Kenneth, The Place-Names of Derbyshire – volume 2, Cambridge University Press 1950.
  2. Kerry, Charles, Smalley in the County of Derby, Bemrose: London 1905.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Homer Well, Looe, Cornwall

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Healing Well (lost):  OS Grid reference – SX 25 53

Archaeology & History

This curiously-named and long lost well would almost have us believe that the Greek poet and philosopher himself was a-wandering in this neck of the woods.  But that sadly wasn’t the case.  It seems to have been mentioned just once in Looe’s early Town Books:

“In 1621 that part of West Looe Down which lieth on the West part of the Homer Well, was let to rent, for two crops, at 6s.8d. per acre”

In Courtney & Couch’s (1880) Cornish dialect work, the word homer is said to mean “homeward”; this is also echoed in Wright’s (1905) magnum opus. It seems to imply that it was a drinking well used by folk traveling the short distance from Looe village, across the river and onto or over West Looe Down towards their cottage or farmhouse; akin to a refreshing resting place halfway home, so to speak.  Sometimes the word homeward can be taken to simply mean “at home,” in which case it would suggest that the Well was simply next to someone’s house.  We may never know…

References:

  1. Bond, Thomas, Topographical and Historical Sketches of the Boroughs of East and West Looe, J. Nichols: London 1823.
  2. Courtney M.A. & Couch, T.Q., Glossary of Words of Use in Cornwall, English Dialect Society: London 1880.
  3. Wright, Joseph, English Dialect Dictionary – volume 3, Henry Frowde: London 1905.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian